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Choosing a profession, like any business, begins with setting a goal. How to formulate it, experts say.
To be honest, this is not an easy task in principle. Especially if your child does not know what he wants to devote his time and energy to. How to help him decide on his desires and set the right goal? How to choose a profession? We asked psychologists to give step-by-step recommendations.
For some growing children and their parents who are not particularly attentive to the dynamics of the educational process, the end of the school year brings interesting discoveries.
For example, they will have to find out that by the end of the ninth grade, every teenager who continues his studies at school must decide in which profile class to study further – humanitarian, natural science, physics and mathematics, and so on (each educational institution has its own set of areas). For many children, this professional choice becomes not only the first serious choice in life, but it also turns out to be incredibly difficult to make.
“I have no idea who to be”, “I don’t like doing anything”, “I like everything, and I don’t know what to prefer” – this is what many high school students say, and even those who, in a couple of months, after final exams, will make this choice by leaving the documents in the selection committee of a particular faculty. But if a person who makes a fateful decision in a state of complete uncertainty can only wish good luck and good intuition, how else can you help? – then those who are younger, parents and psychologists will still have time to somehow guide, prepare. What is the best way to do this?
Set a goal
“Of course, it would be worth starting a conversation with a child about choosing a profession already at preschool age,” notes Galina Rezapkina, a psychologist-professional consultant. – After all, if from early childhood you give your child the opportunity to try himself in different activities, teach him to work, introduce him to professions – at least in a playful way – it will be easier for him to orient himself later and understand what he likes to do and what not. But if a teenager does not know what he would like to devote his time and energy to, if his interests are not manifested or, conversely, there are too many of them, there are different strategies that help resolve the situation.
Choosing a profession, like any business, begins with setting a goal: a capricious and vague “I want” should take on sculptural forms. Goals should be:
specific (I want to win an Oscar, buy a house by the sea, become a better businessman than my uncle, and so on);
realistic, that is, correlated with one’s own capabilities: physical, intellectual, financial, age;
limited in time (a goal is a dream that must be realized exactly by the appointed time);
positive, that is, aimed at the benefit of people, or at least at the observance of the principle of “do no harm.”
Read more:
- Is it time for a career change?
Assess your capabilities
“Discuss with the children their features, advantages and limitations,” suggests Galina Rezapkina. “After all, goals must be backed up by something – the child’s inclinations, abilities, skills, education, finally.”
Invite your son or daughter to answer the following questions:
What level of education (higher, specialized secondary, courses or something else) can I count on, given my school performance and intellectual abilities and skills?
What should be the content of the profession to make it interesting for me to work?
What material reward do I want to receive for my work – the real minimum wage?
What kind of lifestyle do I want to lead: a stressful one, when you have to devote not only work time, but also personal time to work, or a free one, allowing you to devote a lot of time to family, friends and your favorite business?
Do I want to work close to home or do I care?
Make friends “I want”, “I can” and “I must”
The choice can be considered correct if three conditions coincide.
Firstly, this profession is in demand in the labor market (NADO).
Secondly, a young person has a set of professionally important qualities for this job: intellectual, physical, psychological (IGU).
Thirdly, future work should be a joy, not a burden (I WANT). Even if the business is not very good at first, but really like it, the teenager will be able to develop the necessary skills. And without interest, even if he has a talent for this occupation, he is unlikely to develop properly.
In life, you often want one thing, “maybe” another, but you need a third. The components of a successful career are torn in different directions, like the Swan, Cancer and Pike in the famous fable of I. A. Krylov.
“The most “mobile” of these three factors – “I WANT” – is largely determined by family upbringing, says Galina Rezapkina. “These are traditions, values, voluntarily or involuntarily transmitted models of behavior. Example: a girl wants to become a cynologist, asks to get a dog. Parents do not dissuade, but offer a condition – the daughter, as a preparation, must “walk” a toy dog every morning for a month. Three days was enough for the young dog lover to understand that she was not yet ready to take responsibility for the animal. Another example. The parents of a teenager who wanted to become a rock musician “enrolled” him in a financial academy in the hope that his son would come to his senses and continue their business. Didn’t change my mind. He dropped out of a prestigious university, left home, and for some time played in transitions. By the way, he gave the impression of a happy person. How his fate turned out, I don’t know.”
Read more:
- 10 steps to change
I want nothing!
“If a teenager in desperation tells you that he doesn’t like to do anything, that he doesn’t know exactly what he loves, don’t get too upset, because interest doesn’t always wake up right away,” reminds existential psychologist Yevgeny Osin. – But in order for interest to appear, you need to create conditions: firstly, do not sit still, but try new, different things, test yourself in different types of activities. And secondly, to be attentive to oneself, to pay attention to what kind of activity attracts and what does not, what is easy, and what is given with great difficulty or does not work at all. It is not too late for a teenager to take up some kind of art – to start drawing, playing on stage, mastering a musical instrument. Many parents believe that such activities only take time if the child is not aiming to become a musician or artist. But this is not so: creativity gives a person inner freedom and the opportunity to preserve himself as a person. It will help the child to listen to himself, and therefore, ultimately, to find the activity that will arouse his true interest and become the basis of his future career.
The test will tell
There are an alarming number of tests promising help in choosing a profession on the Internet. Should they be trusted? If, for example, a diagnostic test indicates that a teenager is a pure humanist, and he himself is sure that his future is computer science and programming, what does this mean? The fact that a teenager does not understand what he wants, or that the tests are somewhat limited?
“Psychological tests cannot be completely trusted,” Galina Rezapkina warns, “especially testing with the help of computer programs without consulting a specialist. There are too many distortions, ranging from possible imperfections in methods to differences in self-esteem. A good professional psychologist is able to predict professional success with a minimum number of techniques through well-structured conversation and observation. They usually expect ready-made solutions from a professional consultant, but the highest aerobatics is to “start” the inner work, thanks to which a person will make an independent choice.
Nevertheless, there are sites on the Internet where you can find tests compiled professionally and efficiently, using reliable methods. This diagnostic helps the teenager to clarify his “I CAN” – to find out his professional inclinations and personal characteristics. First of all, traditional psychological diagnostics is needed for those who doubt their choice and need to confirm it.
Galina Rezapkina, member of the Interdepartmental Coordinating Council for Career Guidance, senior researcher at the Academy of Social Management and the Federal Institute for the Development of Education, author of many books, including “Conversations about Self-Determination. A book to read in grades 5–7” and “Conversations about self-determination. A book to read in grades 8–9” (both – Academy, 2012).
Read more:
- What profession to choose: training
Some useful links:
The site proftime.edu.ru “Time to Choose a Profession” of the Federal Institute for the Development of Education is addressed to young people who do not want to make a mistake in choosing a profession, and adults – parents, teachers, psychologists who are trying to help them with this. After registration, you can take tests here, get the results and save them in your “personal account”.
The purpose of the portal “Your workplace” rabochee-mesto.com is to help in choosing a profession. The authors of the site solve the problem of acquainting schoolchildren with professions in an original way. Each specialist can talk about his profession – for this he needs to register and fill out a form of 14 positions, including the name of the profession, job duties, education, approximate salary, working conditions, development opportunities, etc. This creates a database that replenished daily.
Proekt-pro.ru Project PRO “A Pass to the Profession” using the example of successful companies informs children about modern business and technologies, gives high school students the opportunity to try on different specialties, penetrate the essence of professions, arouse interest in becoming professionals and find the answer to the question “who become?” The site contains author’s career guidance programs for children from 13 to 16 years old, which will help you navigate in modern business and professions, as well as reports on career guidance excursions with feedback from the children themselves.
The Moscow vocational education portal profedu.ru is addressed to high school students and school graduates.
The foryouaboutyou.ru project of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) is a service that allows you to model an individual psychological portrait based on the results of specially selected tests. Personal recommendations will help determine the optimal area of professional activity, ways of self-development and ways of successful self-realization.